Children's Book Series website

From single book website to series platform

The previous website was structured around one book, which limited its ability to support the wider Morag & Hamish Explore series. As additional titles are developed, the site needs to become a central hub for the series rather than a page built around a single product.

The new website needed to present multiple books clearly, support promotion and events, and allow users to purchase titles directly. This required a more flexible content structure, clearer navigation and a design approach that could appeal to children while still feeling trustworthy and usable for adult purchasers.

Carrying the book identity into a digital space

Working from the existing visual identity, the design focused on translating the tone of the Morag & Hamish books into a digital format. The site needed to feel friendly, characterful and engaging without becoming cluttered or difficult to navigate.

A custom WordPress child theme was developed to give the site a more tailored visual and functional layer. This allowed the branding to be carried through more precisely than a standard theme would allow, while still keeping the site maintainable and compatible with future theme and plugin updates.

This was especially important because the website serves two audiences: younger readers who connect with the characters, and adults who browse, assess and purchase the books.

A custom book carousel for multiple titles

A key feature of the homepage is a custom-built book carousel using Swiper. This allows multiple titles to be presented in a visually engaging and space-efficient way, helping the site communicate the breadth of the series without overwhelming the homepage layout.

WooCommerce integration for direct book sales

WooCommerce was integrated to support direct sales through the website, giving the client a maintainable way to manage products, pricing and orders.

Guided templates for news and events

Custom templates were developed for the news and events sections to make content updates easier for non-technical users. Rather than leaving the client to work around a blank post editor, the templates guide them through the content required for each type of update.

Safeguards were also built into the templates to protect the layout when content is missing. For example, if no image is uploaded, the site automatically displays a relevant fallback image for either news or events, keeping the page consistent without requiring the client to fix the issue manually.